Newport, VIC votes

I live in the suburb of Newport, which is in the Federal electorate of Gellibrand, Victoria. This is a safe Labor seat that last year Tim Watts won with a 15.8% margin.

So it was interesting that, over the course of this election campaign, almost all the political signs I saw around my neighbourhood were for the Australian Greens.

Photo of an election sign for the Australian Greens party installed in front of a house. The sign reads “Vote 1 Suzette Rodoreda for Gellibrand”.

I guess that explains why in yesterday’s polling the Greens got the biggest positive swing (+2.97%) towards them.

Two graphs showing votes received by each political party in the electorate of Gellibrand, Victoria, Australia during the 2022 Federal Election. The first graph shows the percentage of votes received, with the Australian Labor Party receiving 43.2%, followed by the Liberals at 27.1% and the Greens at 16.8%. The second graph shows the swing in votes compared to the previous election. The biggest negative swings are for Labour (-5.84%) and Liberal (-3.67%), while the biggest positive swing is for Greens (2.97%).

Labor held on to this seat, of course, despite that 5.84% drop in votes.

Which is something I’m guessing the folks living in this house expected would happen.

Photo of two election signs installed in front of a house, one for the Australian Greens and one for the Australian Labor Party.

Aside from a single One Nation and single United Australia Party sign, the only other campaign materials I saw sound the neighbourhood were anti-Morrison signs and stickers. Quite a few of them, actually!

One of which was gleefully updated overnight :)

Photo of an election sign installed in the window of a house. The sign shows Australian prime Minister Scott Morrison wearing Hawaiian shirt and a garland of flowers on his head. Below that is text that reads, in quotation marks, “NOT MY JOB”. Stuck on top of the sign is an A4 sheet of paper with the word “GONE” hand-written on it in large, all-capital letters; and below this a smiley face.

Walk in the drizzle

Might not be a lovely, sunny day in Melbourne today, but we still had a lovely walk in the drizzle.

Selfie of a man walking a red/brown dog on a residential street on an rainy day. The man is wearing a light grey rain jacket with the hood pulled over his head. The jacket is wet in large patches. The dog is on a grass strip next to the road and is looking at something off-camera.

T = love

T = love? That's not something I’ve seen or heard in the trans community before – but, hey, you learn something new every day. Hormone therapy *is* love.

Photo of white coloured sky writing on a mostly clear blue sky. The text is upside down from this angle, but read correctly it shows the Christian cross symbol (meaning Jesus Christ, as represented by his crucifixion), the equal sign, and a heart shape. So the writing reads “Christ is love”.

(Or is that † = love because of Easter, meaning “Christ is love”? Nah.)

Neighbourhood drama

Someone is being a tad…dramatic in our neighbourhood. I wonder if that’s from the building owner or the current renter of this block of shops? Either way, they are decidedly Not Happy.

Photo of a side wall of a block of shops in a residential neighbourhood. The wall has been spray painted with a few graffiti tags, including two large ones. Written in the middle of this graffiti, in all capital letters, is “Tag in this place again I'll find you!!!”

Herring Island picnic

Hello from Herring Island in the Yarra River in Melbourne!

Selfie of a man wearing a t-shirt, sunglasses, and a straw hat. The man is standing in an lightly wooded area that’s on an island in the middle of an urban river.

The island is a short punt ride from Richmond.

Photo of a small punt making its way across an urban river to ferry people to the other side.

It has gazebos, public barbecues, several picnic areas, toilets, and even a pottery store.

Photo of a gazebo and some park benches in a large open field surrounded by a wooded area.

Plus there’s artwork to check out. Including this one – ‘Steerage’ by Jill Peck – that you can sit in :)

Selfie of a man wearing a t-shirt, sunglasses, and a straw hat. The man is sitting inside a large piece of artwork that’s shaped like a wide boat. This “boat” is made from pieces of granite, so it looks like grey cobblestones.

It’s a lovely place for a walk and a picnic. 8/10 would recommend.

Photo of a woman in a red and black patterned dress and a straw hat walking across an open field that’s surrounded by tall trees.

A smidge of sunshine

A smidge of sunshine…

Selfie of a man walking a red/brown dog on a residential street. The man is wearing a bright blue cap and a light grey rain shell. There’s a bit of pale sunlight on the bottom half of the man’s face.

On an otherwise overcast and drizzly day.

Selfie of a man walking a red/brown dog on a residential street. The man is wearing a bright blue cap and a light grey rain shell, with the shell’s hood covering the cap. There are splotches of rain on the rain shell.

Hot day

I know it’s going to be a Hot Day today, but it’s quite nice out there right now. Even if it is a smidge windy and a tad humid.

Selfie of a man wearing sunglasses and a wide brimmed hat with the sun behind the man’s head.

That said, the temperature did rise by almost three degrees in just the half hour that Maggie and I were out walking. So it’s not going to be pleasant for too much longer!

Selfie of a man walking a red/brown dog on a red leash. The man is wearing a t-shirt, sunglasses, a wide brimmed straw hat and is looking up at the camera. The dog is just behind the man, sniffing around in the grass on a nature strip at the side of a road.

Daily walks with Maggie

We walk.

Photo of a red/brown dog on a red leash being walked down a residential street on a sunny day.

We check our pee-mail.

Photo of a red/brown dog on a red leash sniffing the grass at the base of a tree on a residential street on a sunny day.

We ask for a treat (when we’ve walked by another dog and haven’t reacted badly to them).

Photo of a red/brown dog on a red leash on the footpath of a residential street. The dog is looking back at its human expectantly.

We take a selfie. (Optional.)

Selfie of a man walking a red/brown dog on a sunny day. The man is wearing a black printed t-shirt, black hat, and sunglasses. The dog is sniffing a patch of grass next to the man.

Lovely day in Melbourne for a walk too!

Photo of a lovely looking residential footpath on a sunny day. There are picket fences to one side of the footpath and a line of trees on the nature strip on the other side.

Picnic at Donnelly Weir

Had a lovely afternoon with friends at Donnelly Weir in the Yarra Ranges yesterday.

Rebecca picked an excellent spot for a picnic, and the weather cooperated by giving us a a nice, cool day after the recent heatwave.

Group selfie of eight people in a wooded area.

Donnelly Weir has a picnic area as well – with a three-table gazebo, barbecue, and nearby toilets. It’s not too busy, either. Only one other table was occupied for part of the time we were there.

9/10 would recommend. But only because we had to drive across a shallow river to get to the car park, which not everyone and every car will be comfortable with.

Photo of a picnic area next to a weir in the middle of a forest. A weir is a small dam built across a river to control the flow of water. The picnic area consists of a wooden gazebo with picnic tables and benches, as well as a shared barbecue.

Weirs are always relaxing places to visit, and this one is no different.

You can’t get into the water here though. This spot is part of the rainfall catchment area that supplies Melbourne’s water supply (ie the water from here fills the dams that supply the city’s water).

Photo of a weir, which is a small dam built across a river to control the flow of water. The weir is located in a wooded area and has a log fence built to once side of it.

But that’s fine. You can still take lots of photos of the water :)

Photo of a weir, taken with the camera held out over the stone wall that’s been built to control the flow of water. Towards the back of the photo is is a small wooden foot bridge built across the river.

Both with…

Close-up photo of a weir wall that has water flowing over it. A long exposure effect has been applied to the photo, making the flowing water look smooth.

…and without the long exposure setting on your camera.

Close-up photo of a weir wall that has water flowing over it.

There are a couple of short trails you can wander down as well.

Selfie of a bald man, wearing glasses and a grey printed t-shirt. The man is standing on a walking trail in a wooded area.

But all you actually need to rest and recharge is to be surrounded by all the trees and birds and running water.

Selfie of a bald man, wearing glasses and a grey printed t-shirt standing in a wooded area. The man is looking down into a camera that is aimed towards the grey, overcast sky. Behind the man you can see the full length of the tall trees that surround him.

Not. Happy.

Melbourne’s recent, super-humid heatwave finally broke when several bands of thunderstorms rumbled through the city.

Maggie Does Not like thunderstorms. She ran to Nadia when the thunder started.

I responded to Nadia’s tweet with my own freaked-out-Maggie photo a short time later.

Close-up photo of a stressed looking red/brown dog underneath a desk. The dog’s ears are pulled back and its mouth is open, with tongue hanging out.

Fortunately, playing Midnight Oil’s ‘Diesel and Dust’ album rather loudly helped – with the music easily masking the ongoing thunder as the storm system rumbled along. [x]

Selfie of a man sitting on a chair in a carpeted room. Sitting on the carpet behind him – alert, but not scared – is a red/brown dog.

Annual Australia Open selfie 2022

What time is it? It’s time for me and Nadia to take our annual Australian Open tennis tournament selfie!

Selfie of a man and a woman sitting in the stands of an outdoor tennis arena. They are both wearing geeky, black, book-related t-shirts; sunglasses; N95 face masks; and blue Australian Open lanyards.

With the 50% capacity limits placed on attendees this year, we even managed to find a totally empty section of Kia Arena in which to take a slightly less pandemically themed selfie :)

Selfie of a man and a woman sitting in the stands of a large, open air tennis arena. They are both wearing geeky, black, book-related t-shirts; sunglasses; and blue Australian Open lanyards.

One more in our full “hot day at a sporting event in the post-vaccine era” regalia.

Selfie of a man and a woman in front of Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia on a sunny day. The man and woman are both wearing black t-shirts, wide-brim straw hats, sunglasses, and N95 face masks, and have blue Australian Open lanyards around their necks.

Speaking of hot days, Nadia was reunited with her happy place at the Australian Open :)

A woman wearing shorts, t-shirt, sunglasses, large hat, and an N95 face masks walks up to a large fan that is spraying a fine mist of cool water onto people walking by.

Two trains, one level crossing

Two trains pass each other at a level crossing.

One train goes left-to-right…

Photo of a Metro Melbourne train going down the tracks at a level crossing. The photographer is standing only a short distance away from the tracks. The train is in clear focus, while the rest of the photo is artistically motion blurred.

One train goes right-to-left…

Photo of a motion-blurred, blue coloured train zipping down the tracks at a level crossing. The photographer is standing only a short distance away from the tracks.

Both photos were taken with a Pixel 6 Pro smartphone. The first photo used the ‘action pan’ camera feature, while the second used the ‘long exposure’ feature.

This stinks

It is stinking hot and humid in Newport today.

I mean that literally because food and garden waste bins in the city of Hobson’s Bay are being collected fortnightly instead of weekly. And so wide open, post-rubbish-collection bins with scrapings of rotting food in them are lying all over the place.

Photo of two large rubbish bins with their lids open standing on the side of a residential street. One bin has a red lid, the other has a green lid.

Over the last couple of years the Hobsons Bay City Council trained us to put all our food waste into our green bins via these kitchen caddies – without compostable big bags, which still aren’t allowed. Those green bins were then collected weekly.

Photo of a kitchen food waste caddy with printed instructions on the lid that tell you what is and isn’t permitted.

Now, at the height of summer, they’ve change the green bin pick-up frequency from weekly to fortnightly.

They knew this was going to be an issue so they launched a permitted compostable bag trial that we signed up for back in November last year. But they won’t send us those trial bags till February.

So now every fortnight our streets stink of rotten food. Fun times.

Photo of three rubbish bins standing and lying haphazardly on the side of a residential street on a bright sunny day. All the bins have their lids open, and one bin is on its side. At the bottom of the photo is a dog on a red leash being walked by the bins.

Pixel 6 Pro + trains

The down side of working from home during the pandemic is that I haven’t had the opportunity to walk around the city taking photos with my (still relatively new) Pixel 6 Pro phone camera system. Which is why you mostly get snaps of Maggie either at home or in and around our neighbourhood. So here are a few train photos I’ve taken over the last few weeks.

Here’s a long exposure of a V/Line train arriving at Southern Cross station. That was taken the last time I went into the office before my year-end break.

Photo of a train pulling into a platform across from the photographer. The photo is a long exposure, so the moving train has motion blur and is slightly transparent.

Here’s one of a train zipping along the tracks from Newport to Laverton stations. I’m really enjoying playing with the various motion photo features available in the Pixel 6 Pro camera.

Photo of a Metro Melbourne train running down train tracks behind a line of trees.

And here’s one of a freight train running down that same bit of track at the southern end of Newport. This time I’m making use of the zoom lenses available on this smartphone.

Photo of a freight train running down train tracks behind the tree line at the end of a residential street. The phrase ‘MULTI-FRIEGHTER’ is written on the side of a the khaki coloured boxcar that’s visible through the trees.

I expect to be going into the office at least a couple of days a week from early next year, so I’m looking forward to taking and sharing more photos then.

Christmas barbecue FTW!

All clear for the Christmas barbecue!

Photo of two rapid antigen tests lying next to each other on a counter. Both tests are showing a negative result for COVID-19.

The barbecue itself was a great success. This here is just a photo of the meat tray taken halfway through the meal. Not shown are the snacks, salads, vegetarian options, pile of haloumi, and desserts! :)

Photo of a tray piled with barbecued meats, including sausages, burger patties, cutlets, and ribs.

Thank you James for the barbecuing and Bec for the hosting! #ChosenFamily

Keeping an eye out

Keeping an eye on its owner while he’s stepped to Leroy’s Café to grab a coffee.

Photo of a black and tan French bulldog wearing a blue and white polka dot vest. The dog is tied to a pole with a blue leash outside a café. It is leaning to one side so it can peek through the door at its owner, who is inside the café.